As the President noted, the case for marijuana legalization is overstated…

Wrong. What the President said was:

“Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case.” [emphasis added]

Of course, the reality is that legalizers aren’t claiming panacea and even then, the President would only say that it would “probably” be overstating it.

2. The SAM club is also promoting the President’s “slippery slope” discussion. “Slippery slope is what the article’s author said, not the President, who rather referred to it as a “line-drawing” issue, which, of course, everything is. This is not a negative about legalizing marijuana, but rather the opening of a door to discussing where lines should be drawn.

I see it as a complete pana something,,we need to keep our dollars here,,we need our farmers and merchants making this money,,we need to quit making criminals the biggest kids on the block and by all means we need to have the smallest prison population in the world,,not the largest and ending marijuana prohibition will end a lot of that,,we can work on the rest of it but after the DEA loses marijuana they will fade into history and if they have any sense,quietly.

Yeah,,it may not be a panacea for law enforcement and control freak politicians but it is one to the common man.

I forgot,,we hit hit Sabet like a flight of B29’s on a daylight run and what few prohibs that stuck their heads up didn’t stay long,,one hung for awhile but people kept throwing science at him that was later and more up to date,,all in all a very good MLK day,,just not for Kev,,he may wish he had left that one buried.

It’s more important than that. As Servetus pointed out in another comment, this leads to places the Powers That Be don’t want the average American mind to go…like political activism.

Symptomatic of that is what was happening all during the Occupy movement. The reaction of the ‘authorities’ was way overblown. There was a reason for that. They wanted to make ‘examples’ of anyone challenging their power structure…to serve as a warning to others who may have sympathized and wanted to participate.

Because…when the People score a victory, they think of scoring more. And politics being a zero-sum game, a gain for the People is a loss for the (corrupt) State.

The great Abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass said it best:

“”Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”

“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” (Emphasis mine – k.)

That quote’s another keeper, Kap’n. I get more of those from here than from any other site. Liberty loathing “liberals” would do well to read that one every morning.

Now don’t get me wrong — I’m not slamming liberals per se, just the poseurs who call themselves liberal while openly and proudly expressing their disgust for those who agitate for liberty; those who are uncomfortable with “liberty for all” because they think so little of their fellow citizen and so much of themselves that they reckon it’s their duty to manage everybody’s lives but their own.

And when you add all KAP said to the greed factor building from a million dollar day I would say Obama just sped the end of prohibition up a lot more than a nudge,,I was so busy hating him for his snails pace but now I see that when he laughed at us in the that first pot question he answered he actually did us a favor.
And every step he has taken from ramping up the MMJ busts to ignoring the voters has built this fire and I hope it is on purpose.

Freeman, what worries me the most is a very sick and twisted thing that is going on at just about every (self-proclaimed) ‘Progressive’ site I have visited for the past 5 years. Namely, the trashing of the word ‘libertarian’.

Note the lower case, not the upper, which denotes the actual political party. The lower case, which implies the general concept, in total. And those doing that damn’ well know the difference between the two.

Calling the concept of libertarianism itself anathema? It was libertarianism that was behind all of the actions of the great philosophers (Locke, Rousseau, etc.) who later imparted their beliefs to the Founders, who then used those beliefs to build the foundations for the freedoms we are (supposed to be) celebrating today.

In a stroke of supreme irony, The Founders themselves were often described as ‘liberals’ for holding their ‘libertarian’ viewpoints. They wouldn’t recognize today’s ‘liberals’ as anything more than secularized versions of the King’s agents, seeking to use government to impose their own diktats.

I don’t have to tell anyone here that words have power. An old lyric from a song by the group INXS has stuck with me ever since I first heard them: Words are weapons, sharper than knives…” We’ve been on the sharp end of those words, words that were paid for and sharpened for use against us with our own taxpayer dollars. Those words have been used to justify the atrocities committed, not just against illicit drug users here, but in countries around the world. Indeed, words have power.

To twist the meaning of such an important word as libertarianism, whose root word is liberty, itself, to call the very concept itself into question with intent to debase it, is to provide an incredibly revealing look into the mind of a modern so-called ‘Progressive’. They haven’t advanced much beyond their ideological forebears, who saddled us with the drug laws in the first place.

I’ve noticed that some morons have been conflating the tea baggers with libertarian beliefs. I’ve speculated that a major contribution to those simple minded beliefs comes from the observations of the Ignorati of Ron and Rand Paul. Ron Paul has not inaccurately been identified as a Libertarian. He did run for POTUS in 1988 on the Libertarian ticket.

So along comes Rand Paul who isn’t inaccurately identified as a tea bagger. But somehow the idiots have decided that the younger R. Paul is a Libertarian. Does everyone recall my observation that in order to end the “war on (some) drugs” we need to keep the prohibitionists busy or else they’ll get into real mischief? How about my proposal to substitute the “war on (some) bugs” because the sycophants of prohibition are none too bright? Well it’s that dynamic at work here since both Messrs. Paul are politicians and their names so similar the prohibitionists are unable to fully…or hell, even partially differentiate the two men.

Don’t freak out because I’m not assigning blame to the Pauls. This is an observation of the genuinely dimwitted stupidity of a certain part of the body politic. I think it would be a good idea to remember that it’s genuinely difficult to figure out what morons are “thinking”.

Yessiree, Kap. Exactly the “liberty-loathing liberals” I was talking about. They are open and proud of their sneering contempt for libertarian concepts. Do they hate liberty so much that they have abandoned the liberal label in favor of “progressivism”, because the old label has it’s root in that awful word — liberty?

As Duncan points out, one has to have an extremely ill-informed understanding of libertarianism to conflate libertarians with tea-baggers, but it’s sadly not uncommon to find a heapin’ helpin’ of exactly that sort of ignorance at many a progressive site, and a fair amount among those who are still willing to call themselves liberals as well.

Here’s a fun exercise: Stop by a progressive site and try to make the point that libertarianism and classical liberalism have more in common than not. Then brace for the inevitable onslaught!

I’d rather jack a bobcat off in a phone booth,,that is why I have to get high to talk to some of the two,three and sometimes four faced people,,it keeps me destroying my keyboard or depending on the proximity making their neck the same diameter as my dick,,I have that size dialed in by now.

Junior Boosh was a Liberal by defined standards and Klintoon was more Neocon than progressive. Ron and Ayn Rand Paul Ryan run as Utopians commie phobic John Birch Neocons. To equate an abolitionist Frederick Douglass with Liberalterrorism or Libertarians is silly. their choice for prez was Bob Barr who stopped the vote in DC. Ron Paul also sided where the votes were on evolution and a woman’s choice. As hypocritical as the op rescue cotton farmers aborting babies with poisons not used with hemp that they lump all together as crack or heroin. Neocon’s willing to sell out the country since borders are for keeping people out and outsourcing is for cheap labor. Mexamericanada. World Banks and a G-20 government of the money by the money and for the money. Those who fear Liberals are fearing Neocons, not progressives or protest ants. Those who rarely speak against legalizing in public but cast their votes against it. Ralm Emmanual with Kointoon and Obama now Ralmmy’s collecting fines in Chicago. Neocons of the Kristol origins in the 60’s corporated war hawk blue dawg dems with southern dixiekrats like Klintoon and Nixon Bush and their purely fascist alignment into one anti American globalist movement.

Them, against the US and by keeping the old parties at each others throats, they have little competition. Especially taking over state and local elections. Posing as whomever needs to be seen and heard. For legalizing or against, depends on the audience. Double speak and a lot of shaming the other guy. The drug war is a multinational corporation with no allegiance to any country. Until that is seen and why Ganja and especially Hemp are actually outlawed. We will Incrementally Retard the progress of freeing the weed. I’m not holding my breath longer than usual. The day I need “legal” pot is the day I quit. I’ve always considered myself an Anti-Fascist not a Legalizer. Ask why has Nush and the Moonies bought up over a million acres with one of the largest aquifirs in Paraguay? Such patriotism to our country they feel a need to live elsewhere?

Our only choice is to remove it as a schedule#1 narcotic or busts continue. The present situation has 21 different state laws all designed to continue funding the war chest. Fines or cages or 95% please bargains and rehab, pisstastes and paperwork. Obama is one black dude in a sea of green money pulling his strings and to bring it up for discussion is more than any sitting federal politician has done. Give credit where due. Even if its not much. Two senators recently moved for medicinal use and a few for Hemp on their terms. As it is right now. The DEA has patents on cannabinoids. The ElShoy Schwag Farm can produce the Ganja and distribution is set up along with rolling machines and past tinctures developed for the Military. Canada still holds the treaty to produce Hemp in NA. And the political players still throw stones at the “other” team. Not a thought as to the League controlling them. Just root for the homeboys. Go Gipper, yeah!

Anyone naive enough to think Big Pharma can’t satisfy the needs of all patients the same as stoners have been doing all along. Stoners have kept this plant from extinction and have taken the brunt of ridicule, degradation and lack of respect. Stoners got the new patients their meds in the late 70’s and 80’s when everyone turned their backs on the counterculture and most of the counterculture simply assimilated into the establishment. Only the non pretty people and non affiliated politically continued to grow and smoke and advocate. DC 4th of July protest had 9 people in the mid 80’s. High Times and Cannabis Culture were the only sources of information. Debates and the media were non existent. No political party sided with reform until Steve Kubby ran as a Libertarian, and then escaped to Canada and was kidnapped back to the states. Free of his bogus bust he ran again. Only to be replaced by none other than the drug worrier Bob Barr. Like Harry Rivers the Stock Broker. Until libertarians cut the umbilical cord with Wall St they are not abolitionists and have no resemblance to Frederick Douglass. Guess who know owns his old cabin? Donald Rumsfeld. Is that ironic or just a sick joke.

Utopianism is also not libertarian and liberal pacifists are hiding under the couch afraid of everything, especially gun noises. Dem doormats or racist shit kickers both serving the same masters. The GOP and DNC are Neocon’s. Small libertarians are ridiculed by so called progressives on forums. I’ve joined sometimes because bible thumping gun nuts and tea baggers saying they are libertarians are still my opposition, regardless of their political buttons. Tea bagger militias were sucked up by the Dick Armey of Insurance Companies and The Koch’s and the Bush Klan. Bush Klinton Gore and Wall St Walmartian’s are our foes. So if libertarians don’t want the tea bag label they should try to point out the differences. Like I said the G-20 trolls claiming titles have no affiliation with America, let alone its citizens well being. Greens shunning Hemp wanting punishment for pollution over less pollution. Like BP using dispersant to lower the amount of oil captured by skimmers and the $100k per barrel fines. Now the oil is still there, only onthe bottom or washed away into smaller bits of the same pollution. Greens formed out of doormat dems and so called libertarians from disgruntled republicans. John Birch Society was a different time and I would not call libertarian. They and Reagan McCarthy blackballing those deemed communists the same as those deemed liberal legalizers. Not of Liberty. More Xenophobicism. If they had any power, Hitler would have taken Europe. I side with Bob Dylan on this one. Paranoid delusional isolationists have no liberty in mind.

But I guess its easier or A Motivational to just assume they are all morons and not authoratarian citizens raised to believe in what the man in the suit says. What the badge says or what the preacher says. Promotions based on obedience. Staying in line or in step. They are proud of it. Get pats on the back for having the straightest lines or polished boots. Prohibition causing a dormant Endocannabinoid system and enlarging their fear centers making them even more reliant on authoritarians to lead them. They say Jesus made wine from water so be it. They say Ganja grows boytits so be it. Hate hippies, ok. Hate gun nuts, ok. Is this not obvious? Is there any doubt that banning research after discovering Ganja shrank brain tumors is the act of Fascism. Not any political party we think of as democracy or even federalism. Its Neocon fascism. Corporatism. Not social or communal or any care for the American people.

Why worry about our middle class workers when they can gut minimum wages in india, China or thailand and get a similar product? There is no government allegiance to the Constitution since Wall St took over after Nixon. None. No free speech in corporations. No right to bare arms or smoke doobies. Legalizing only means less profit. It has nothing to do with our health, never has. So I’ll always side with myself over any politician. Safer that way. As for Goper Gerbals wearing a three pointed hat calling themselves freedom fighters. Cut. Its a wrap.

“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States —in the fields of commerce and manufacturing—are afraid of somebody. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
– Woodrow Wilson

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know that “A financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
– Franklin Roosevelt,
FDR to Col. E. Mandell House 11/21/1933

“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”
– David Rockefeller

“We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.”
– Bill Clinton

“Today, America would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all people of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the world government.”
– Henry Kissinger
(Bilderburg Conference 1991 Evians, France)

“Naturally the common people don’t want war…but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship…all you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” Herman Goering, during the Nuremberg Trials

The easiest way to gain control of the population is to carry out acts of terror. The public will clamor for such laws if the personal security is threatened. – Joseph Stalin

The real rulers of Washington are Invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.
– Justice Felix Frankfurter – US Supreme Court Justice

The real menace of our Republic is the invisible Government which like a giant Octopus, sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states, and nation.
– John F. Hylan – Mayor NYC 1918-1925

“Give me control of a Nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.”
– Mayer Amschel Bauer (Rothschild)

“The Trilateralist Commission is international …(and)…is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing CONTROL of the political government of the United States. The Trilateralist Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize COTROL and consolidate the four centers of power: Political – Monetary – Intellectual – and Ecclesiastical.”
– Barry Goldwater , U.S. Senator AZ. “With No Apologies”

“We shall have World Government. Whether or not we like it. The only Question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.”
– James Paul Warburg,
Foreign agent for the Rothschild dynasty
– Major Player in the Federal Reserve act scam,
Feb. 17, 1950 speaking before the U.S. Senate.

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the NY Times, Time Magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings, and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop OUR PLAN for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a World Government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual ELITE and World Bankers is surely preferable to the national auto – determination practiced in past centuries.”
– David Rockefeller CFR Kingpin,
Founder of the Trilateral Commission,
NOW Godfather / June 1991

Kap’n, Re: your comment on the demonization of the word libertarian, and the philosophy that is its foundation.
Have you seen this article?: http://goo.gl/eX5H3p
If not you should go there and drop that comment there, too. Please.

Clay: Your fun exercise sounds a lot more… interesting… than the one I mentioned. lol!

DDC: Excellent political analysis, I must say. And I must agree: every political party, and those who represent them, pretty much suck. Political theater to amuse the masses, keep them fighting each other instead of the real power that oppresses them, and give the illusion that their vote actually matters.

Alcohol can poison you,,,marijuana can’t,,I know that isn’t important to some people but that point makes a very big impression on me.

As far as legalization,,we have a choice,,we either have a legal regulated market with people that can be held accountable for the quality of their products and sells to adults or we have an illegal uncontrollable market that sells anything that looks like marijuana to anyone they can.

PS:As a bonus for choosing the illegal market the violence and corruption are thrown in for free.

Seriously, Patrick was on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” Tonight – He was talking about ‘read any of the NIDA research , it will ALL tell you marijuana is bad for you’…
There I was yelling at the TV, “No Shit Dofuss, that’s part of the problem! Don’t you get it?”

NIDA doesn’t fund research unless it aims to proves that marijuana is bad for you somehow – and whatever research that accidentally turns up surprising them with some positive results or health benefit is immediately ‘buried in an unmarked grave’ = ASAP! Its actually part of their ‘official policy’.
AFAIK, – I could be mistaken, it might be part of their unwritten, ‘unofficial policy’?

I’m gonna watch the replays of MSNBC’s primtime news shows = to see if Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Or Lawrence O’Donnell took issue with the Kennedy’s appearances & lies on ‘Hardball w/Chris Matthews’, – though I’m afraid they may still be focused squarely on Chris Christie & the GW Bridge.

Okay, it looks like 14 out of 16 or so hardball viewers are reaming Chris in the comments section tonight about the One-side nature & lies portrayed without question from Chris. No, “Hardballs” tonight – it was all little league “coaches-pitch” this particular evening.

B.,,Nora admitted last spring that NIDA didn’t do any research besides harm research,,the congressman asked her if she was in charge of medical studies and why so many were denied,,,she went into this long spiel about different divisions of NIH,,etc,etc,etc,she got so tied up in explaining how NIH worked they never got the answer why so many medical studies were denied,,,a missed golden moment or a staged one.

Yeah, I know that Clay – But, Patrick seems to have forgotten that she ever said it, that’s what I was mad about last night – his apparent ignorance about how the ONDCP NIDA/FDA catch-22

Maybe, he really did kill too many brain cells?

Mixing liquor and pills is bad news, but his mixing Ambien & Oxycontin is arguably worse – but (IMO) only because it leads to “sleep-whatever” activities.

Like = Patrick’s infamous “sleep-driving” incident… and I don’t believe the news said he was on anything other than Ambien, at the time. I suspect he may have screwed up again (somehow) in a less public manner and blamed that on the Oxycontin, which lead him to the plea bargaining into Public Service agreements thing.

It appears he wasn’t useful for anything else – so they’ve kept him one, as a “poster-child” of sorts… a “classic, Bad Example – of what alcohol & narcotics can do to you…”

Which would be okay, except = They’ve completely brainwashed him into thinking that ALL “alcohol & drugs” will Always do this, to Virtually Everyone – something which is clearly not the case.

I get that it’s hard for someone with famously flawed & exalted family members to admit that – YES, there are in fact some people that don’t possess the same lack of willpower as others… (Like him).

How can you ever expect to succeed if the ‘First Thing’ on your mandated “To Do List” – is to – “Admit you’re powerless to MODERATE your own consumption of any & all inebriants?”

That “in the long run” NOBODY is able to control their own behavior if they drink – or ‘use’ drugs – even for completely legitimate medical reasons.

And, that only thing that can save/help you is Divine Grace, or maybe the FSM, or “whatever you choose to call it”. Neat idea, but IMO those meetings are just as “habit-forming” as many drugs.

How happy can you be if you’re forced into an endless string of ‘meetings’? People who’re stuck planning their whole lives around attending meetings, and getting drawn-into the BS & Drama that all too often resides in these places.

Sorry, I guess my point is that I’m sick to death of people like Patrick, that now live solely to convince others that ‘Sobriety’ is some great ‘pure state of being’, that we must all strive for.
That its somehow an unquestionably admirable/desirable ‘Goal’, I wholeheartedly disagree.

The notion that ‘they’ can subject everyone to pursue this “goal”, against ‘our’ will – by Force of Law, THAT is flat-out EVIL – YES, I said it and I mean it!

I think that “out of body experiences”, “near death experiences”, and similar forms of ‘Spiritual Trips’ – whether you get there by use of an entheogen like ayahuasca, or fasting & prayer, sweet lodges & peyote, etc. that these are ALL related somehow.

I say that because I know Humans are drawn to seek ‘Altered States of Consciousness’ in various forms/strengths/flavors. I simply refuse to believe that anyway except via Religion this is ‘bad’, ‘immoral’, or ‘sinful’, even if sometimes things can get dicey (aka ‘bad trips’).

I don’t believe that anyone can know the entire ‘Truth’ about such things, after all – ‘Faith’, IS “Belief without Proof”, Right?

I do believe we’re ALL looking for *roughly the same thing* – Yet, some folks think they (and thus everyone) needs to be one their best behavior & “Wait for Heaven” to experience any such ‘spiritual trip’ = Yep, you gotta to wait until after you die for that.

(No offense, but that seems like the biggest fraking risk you could ever take, No?) You see, Some of us would prefer to “Seek an Alternate Route to a Preview” of ‘Heaven’ – (more or less), I don’t see that as a problem.

*Higher Power, Forbid* you choose to use the easiest/safest/most-versatile, God-given “seed-bearing plant” on the planet to achieve this feat/task! Or they’ll lock you up in a cage, with everyone else who disagrees with them.

Still, Many folks refuse to accept the notion that another person’s path to ‘said destination’, is the only, best and/or most virtuous path to get there.

I say, “Thanks and all, but I’ll take my own ‘Route’ TYVM.”

And stopping to “smell the roses”/flowers (or possible even smoke some of them) isn’t going to harm anyone.

the comparison of industrial lead use with cannabis consumption is one more desperate hail mary pass by the (more of the) SAM(e) folk. its their latest what about the children meme. this is desperation.

We have SAM against the ropes,,all their “big marijuana”
scaremongering has been laughed out of relativity simply by pointing out everything we buy from a store is big somebody.
Now SAM is comparing marijuana use to lead use ,,lead poisons you so the comparison is totally uncalled for and unrealistic but since the leader of SAM is Kevin Sabet reality has nothing to do with it.

It’s because when we get into a boxing match we don’t use straw men as sparring partners. Success in boxing is almost entirely in the preparation and training.

Oh, and Mike Tyson says not to forget to take a not insignificant dose of cocaine before stepping into the ring. I really can’t believe that the Boxing authorities haven’t stripped him of his championship belts yet. Lance Armstrong is pixxed too. All that Mr. Armstrong did was to use some of his own previously produced and stored extra red blood cells.Mike Tyson: I used fake willie to fool drug-testers and fought on cocaine

I hadn’t thought about it for a long time but back in his heyday I was certain there was more to his boxing ability than met the eye. I’ve never been a particular fan of boxing but I actually watched several of his fights. IIRC none of them lasted more than a few rounds before his opponents were asking if someone had gotten the number of that truck.

This one is from the “from the sublime to the ridiculous” category, no doubt: Friggin’ Iron Mike is currently appearing in a one man show. He’s playing himself talking about his favorite subject which is of course Mike Tyson. Soon to be a major motion picture. I don’t know how anybody could make this stuff up!

“so irresponsible!! Comparing a known neurotoxin (lead) with a neuroprotectant (cannabinoid-containing cannabis; see patent) whose adolescent cognitive risk exposure data (see PNAS paper) is hopelessly confounded by a massively irrational contrabanding program (ie, prohibition) whose psychological effects (ie distress, see Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease paper) become massively felt when one is brought into close contact with banned cannabis (ie, uses it; see Harm Reduction Paper) is irresponsible. In other words, lead and cannabis are too chemically different and legally differently treated to juxtapose like this. (later comments with references were censored)”

Starin’ at the boob tube, turnin’ on the big knob
Tryin’ to find some life in the waste land
Fin’ly found a program, gonna deal with Mary Jane
Ready for a trip into hate land
Obnoxious Joe comes on the screen
Along with his guest self-righteous SAM
And one more guy who doesn’t count
His hair and clothes are too far out

While pushin’ back his glasses SAM is sayin’ casually
“I was elected by the masses”
And with that in mind he starts to unwind
A vicious attack on the finest of grasses

Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, SAM)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, SAM)
Well, it will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, SAM)
All will pay that disagree with me
(Please give up you already lost the fight, alright)

Misinformation SAM and Joe
Are feeding to the nation
But the one who didn’t count counted them out
By exposing all their false quotations
Faced by a very awkward situation
This is all he’d say to save the day

Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, SAM)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, SAM)
Well, it will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, SAM)
All will pay that disagree with me
(Please give up you already lost the fight alright)

You waste my coin SAM, all you can
To jail my fellow man
For smoking all the noble weed
You need much more than him
You’ve been telling lies so long
Some believe they’re true
So they close their eyes to things
You have no right to do
Just as soon as you are gone
Hope will start to climb
Please don’t stay around too long
You’re wasting precious time

From the Moonie Times, of course. And guess what? Istook says that his source of information is the ONDCP.

LOL! I said it was going to get crazy, and now look. They’ve opened the throttle on the crazy full bore over there. Buckle up, friends, buckle up, and grab the safety bar, the roller-coaster has just reached the top of the track and we’re roaring off.

The prohibs have absolutely no idea what kind of a minefield they have just stepped into. Now all those disproved studies the prohibs like to use must be held up as evidence by the White House in order to defend itself from the approaching firestorm. The whole wretched, rotten edifice of cannabis prohibition may blast apart in just a few months if this becomes what I think it will.

Think about it: all the prohibs have are false data. That false data has been used to stonewall progress in reform, as that false data is actually the foundation for maintaining prohibition. An entire national policy built on false data…and now it’s foundation is under attack, not by reformers but by prohibs!

The Administration itself will have to provide the very same refutations to (fraudulently offered) discredited studies that we have been providing for YEARS. In short, to defend itself, the Obama Administration must now defend reform against prohibition.

They need to hire some of us as Obama’s think tank,,what an honor that would be to add to our war chests. Hell he should just come sit on the couch. No line cutting here,,even with the Secret Service helping him.

I was wondering if they realized where they were going…looks like you picked it up on that, too. I had a brief flash of the ONDCP (following it’s congressional mandate, of course) releasing a response to the president’s statements. Coffee sprayed, and for a brief moment, I was living in the movie “Brazil”.

I see Congressional investigations looming on the horizon, investigations having to do with the origins of cannabis prohibition.

I see lots of pols will be (falsely) running around pulling Guptas left and right, particularly over the racial issue.

I see a lot of African- and Hispanic-Americans supporters of prohibition will realize that what their children have been saying for some time, that they were the targets of prohibition, was true all along. Wait until that petrol hits the fire!

And most of all, I see this coming down to finally, irrevocably breaking the official logjam that has stymied Federal legislative progress for decades being removed almost overnight (in political time scales) because no one but the densest pol will want to be on the losing side, not when the losing side will be associated with racists. I expect to see plenty of re-legalization bills being tendered for rapid action, as the pol who does it first will get the lion’s share of the attention.

The lead paint posting is from AUG and Sunil responded he had reputed the article months ago on his FB page. Since Kevin isn’t paying any attention to the peer reviews that show how shallow and targeted his IQ research was we may need a refresher.

Somewhere some people they don’t want to know are going to catch on just how big the drug war machine has become,,when all you have is one or two bureaucrats on the carpet asking questions you can’t get a picture of a row of scared bureaucrats sitting at a table in congress conjured up,,,they are fixing to have classic pictures for us to add to our pot porn slide shows.

It could be because it’s snowing here in DC and the Federal government is closed due to DC Metro area drivers being totally incompetent to drive in even the most mild of April showers. I have noticed that on holidays that the incidence of morons posting in favor of prohibition skyrockets and that those posting their opinions obviously haven’t participated much in the discussion. I noticed it yesterday on schedule and even moreso today.

yup..not a prohib stuck his head up in LA,,,will have to fix up some weekend posts for DC outlets and just hit and run them because you can’t change their minds and even though lot of citizens see how ridiculous their arguments are too much of that and I will be buying a station wagon and riving around DC

Bonjour Nemo (or is it Emo?) Very perceptive analysis with “In short, to defend itself, the Obama Administration must now defend reform against prohibition.”
And they, like previous administrations, should find it easy….after all, they know where the bodies are buried, having killed off the truth about prohibition for generations. Just dig around a little in the Nixon files, followed by Reagan…and every president since.

If Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.) was incensed about poverty, injustice and other important issues facing this country instead of grinding his teeth about an ad on Metro [“Marijuana Ad on Metro Infuriates Lawmaker,” Metro, Dec. 3], the country and his constituents would be better off.

Drug War Goes Up in Smoke January 26, 1999
A Report from Congressman Ernest Istook
President Clinton has just surrendered in America’s war against drugs. Last week President Clinton vetoed the appropriations bill for the District of Columbia. Why? So that he could help the District legalize marijuana and use taxpayer dollars to give needles to drug addicts. I’m deeply disturbed by this veto, and every parent, teacher and police officer should be, too.

Oklahoma 90 YEARS-5 PLANTS!
Age 47, serving 90 years charged with cultivation and possession of five marijuana plants. In 1992, James Geddes was walking along a street with a friend when he got arrested.

Oklahoma: Will Foster, a 42-year-old father of three, was arrested in 1995 for growing marijuana in the basement of his Tulsa home. He said he needed the drug to relieve chronic pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis. In California, or one of the eight other states that allow the medical use of marijuana, a defendant like Foster can get off. In Oklahoma, he got 93 years.

Rep. Ernest Istook has sliced the budget of the Washington transit authority by more than $90,000 because of ads placed on local buses promoting the legalization of marijuana. Istook, R-Warr Acres, sent a letter Nov. 10 to the chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area

SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN MEDICAL MARIJUANA
The court, voting 7-1 to grant an emergency Clinton administration request, postponed the effect of federal court rulings that would have allowed a California club to distribute the illegal drug for medicinal use. Only Justice John Paul Stevens dissented. He said the government “has failed to demonstrate that the denial of necessary medicine to seriously ill and dying patients will advance the public interest or that the failure to enjoin the distribution of such medicine will impair the orderly enforcement of federal criminal statutes.”

The latest Chris Matthews interview of the scientifically illiterate Patrick Kennedy and Chris Lawford who disagree with Obama and condemn marijuana use is here.

Chris Matthews is an ex-cop, so we can expect he was hooked up to the electrodes in his law enforcement career and force-fed pot hysteria. Kennedy’s and Lawford’s ignoble status as addicts leads them to think that if one person shouldn’t use a drug (because it might be addictive for that person), then no one can. Chris Lawford’s dad was actor Peter Lawford, a well-known advocate of marijuana, who died of causes related to alcoholism, not marijuana use.

Neither Kennedy nor Lawford would be where they are today without their family connections. Their anti-marijuana campaign appears designed to make them look relevant, which they’re not. They act in similar fashion to really dumb celebrities who fear monger over the use of vaccinations. At least Robert Kennedy Jr. didn’t show up to condemn thimerosal in vaccines as a gateway to pot smoking.

Patrick, being loud doesn’t help your lost cause. You were almost incoherent, and maybe slow down on the coffee (cocaine?); you just couldn’t wait to answer the question that wasn’t even finished being asked. Science? Yea, I’ve got science! Sure, listen to me now, um quadri, er quintl, um percentages lower, people with IQ, YEA!

i havent enjoyed such a good laugh in ages. pat kennedy should have been a commedian. three idiots talking nonsense. and get chris matthews final comment to the two prohibs: “slow that train down”. no opposing views on this subject for “hardball”

It is a rare occasion when I notice anything new being regurgitated by a sycophant of prohibition. Today is therefore remarkable because I can’t recall ever hearing that cannabis should remain criminalized because potheads smell nasty.

5 Reasons Marijuana Should Remain Illegal
/snip/
How did we end up in a world where Big Gulps are being banned in New York while the welcome mat for potheads is being rolled out in Colorado? How is it that cigarette smokers are pariahs, while people smoking weed are being cheered? This is despite the fact that potheads are almost universally recognized as unmotivated, low class, degenerate – and, yes, smelly failures. Even the ones that get somewhere in life, like Barack Obama, usually turn out to be mediocrities.
/snip/

It starts out relatively neutral, but then you see the rabid foaming of the mouth towards the end… Statistics do exist to compare alcohol and cannabis 1 to 1, but they choose to offer incomparable statistics throughout. Ugly.

the governor additionally promised that “we are going to regulate the living daylights out of (marijuana),” and, according to the Herald, “said he’s committed to regulating it more strenuously than alcohol.”

By “regulate the living daylights”, Hickenlooper probably means to discourage pot sales in Colorado. Perhaps Coloradans will now enlighten the governor about the democratic process in an upcoming election. It should be interesting to see if politicians opposing legalized marijuana in their own pro-marijuana states can retain their public offices.

MJ got more votes than Obama in 2012. Chickenpooper is likely to be returned to being a barkeep if he doesn’t quit dissing the bud. (actually, I suspect there are a lot of politicians that are less popular than MJ.)

Its no accident that the President came out with an earth shattering statement about marijuana on MLK Day. Marijuana prohibition is racist. THAT is what the President made reference to. That is the object of his agreement with us. He is correct.

Obama’s point is the racism and the class inequality. Its undeniable, just read the New Yorker. If we want to support the president, this is the point that needs to be slammed home. Its the point of it getting brought up on MLK Day. You don’t throw people in jail for having a “bad habit”.

Don’t forget this when commenting. His legacy will not be the legalizing of marijuana, but the dismantling of a racist and unjust policy. There is lots to say on this subject. Don’t forget how racist this prohibition is.

Well I’ll be an uncle’s monkey. I think we’re going to have to put the bandwagon in the shop for upgraded springs and shocks because of the extra weight from all the big shots jumping on. Yet another one from the “res ipsa loquitur” category:

Love this quote, I think it really sums up a major factor in the growing support for mj reform specifically.

To Alison Holcomb, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who wrote the ballot measure that legalized recreational marijuana in Washington state, the “enormous jump” in approval of legalization in just a year does not reflect “changes in attitudes about marijuana specifically. Rather, it’s a change in attitudes about whether it’s OK to support marijuana law reform.”

It’s amazing how many people think that an overnight change in attitude in the body politic that took over 4 decades to come to fruition is irrelevant.

Are prohibitionists only able to recall the last couple of years? The nonsense about there never having been a legal market for people who enjoy cannabis sure as heck has Fitz Hugh Ludlow spinning in his grave. I sure am glad he wrote a book about the legal hash parlors. Just the fact that practically no one recalls the existence of a retail distribution chain for cannabis for enjoyment in the last half of the 19th century is pretty significant supporting evidence that it was a total non-event.

gosh… it’s just January. What surprises are in store for February?? This is damn near as good as the Xmas I got my first real bike… I think the word for what the Prohibs are feeling is discombobulated. (which is what one would expect ofsomeone with their head up their ass and both feet in their mouth)

If the feds and the states could turn is loose by 4/20 we could have control of the marijuana market by 11/20 and do more damage to the cartels than 4 trillion dollar has.
And it won’t cost them a dime.

We will end the failed war on drugs that believes that incarceration is the cure of every ill caused by drug abuse. We will make drug treatment available to as many of our non-violent offenders as we can and we will partner with our citizens to create a society that understands this simple truth: every life has value and no life is disposable.”

If he had added as long as they can afford it it would have been more accurate

Fortunately Gov. Christie is too fat to leave the Governors mansion. All the shoehorns and Vaseline in the world aren’t any help getting him out the door. K-riced! Do you know how much it would cost to reinforce the bandwagon’s suspension to keep it from collapsing under his weight? He weighs almost as much as Bill Gates’ money for crying out loud!

The position, (head up ass, both feet in mouth) is called discombobulation. To arrange one’s self in this position is to become discombobulated. To continue to try to speak while in this position is to create a discombobufart. To ‘evolve’ to another position is to become undiscombobulated. Most politicians are auto-discombobulators, in that they automatically assume that position by default. They also auto-discombobufart. Once one has ‘evolved’ it is correct to call them combobulated or rehabobulated.

Back in the 1970s it was generally accepted that the holy grail of cannabis was Maui Wow-eee from Hawaii. We had a steady supply but the guy didn’t know any price other than $10/gram. It wasn’t that special with Panama Red going for $40/oz. Back then I didn’t have any reason to question its pedigree but in hind sight I’m pretty darn certain it was grown locally. But back then the word homegrown was a denigration synonymous to ditch weed. But that’s just a bit of arcana. I’ve known enough people who went to Hawaii in that day to know that the reputation for the quality of Hawaiian cannabis was/is firmly based in reality.

I really am getting to like that stupid Patrick Kennedy guy. What a great spokesmodel for the morons of prohibition. Hey Patrick, your foot looks like it tastes nasty, nasty, nasty! Why do you keep putting that thing in your mouth? Who ties this guys shoelaces?

In tomorrow’s edition of Stupid Patricks we’ll talk about another legendary strain of cannabis from the late 1970s called Matanuska County Thunderfuck, and explain why they had so much trouble getting it to exceed 30% THC back in 1979. Hint: they succeeded but Dr. Assholey from UMiss fixed the results. Same Pat time! Same Pat channel!

Those, who like myself, spent their “informative years” in Europe, during the late 60s to early 70s, will remember the abundance of great hash from The Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, India and Morocco.

One batch of Kashmiri Twist was so hard and compact, only a large hacksaw would cut thru it—breaking off pieces was totally impossible. Six of us shared one joint. A mix of tobacco and hacksaw dust. then went for a game of pool. We were so stoned, we just sat around the pool table and laughed for a whole hour solid. Not one of us needed, or even wanted, to smoke another for the rest of the evening.

We would see Jamaican and Thai stick (real thai stick, not the bunk imitations that went around about a decade later) and Acapulco Gold, back in my high school days, and I was quite disappointed with the first batches of “sensi” we got. They started arriving about the time I got back from Central America. It just didn’t pack the same punch. I grew up in Rural Illinois and Southern California. Barry was in Hawaii, and connected. He wasn’t smokin’ bunk.

I’ve only met a few people who were alive and choosing to enjoy cannabis in the 1970s (and who still do) who believe the claptrap that we were smoking placebo weed back in the 1970s. After running into a few I realized that the key question to ask those people is “where did you grow up?” In the shadow of Mt. Rushmore, on a potato farm in Idaho, next door to the Wawa in Iowa, working for the outhouse dealer on the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, hunting wildcats in western Texas, etc, etc, etc.

Thai stick doesn’t count DC, that was enhanced with opium. At least in my neck of the woods it was.

Actually Duncan I’m one of them. I took my first toke in 1970 and have continued enjoying cannabis till the present.
In my neighborhood in the 70’s there was only dark hash that would rival anything today for taste,smell and potency so we were spoiled and didn’t know it.
After a few years the hash disappeared and there was brickweed or “Mexican Compresso” with a complete selection of males,seeds,stems and other weeds.
Some of it wasn’t too bad but a lot was poor quality and just made you tired and lazy. The myth of the lazy stoner is based on fact as knowing what I know now it was probably low in THC and high in cannabidial. I never liked that aspect and was only an occasional toker during the late 70’s till we learned to grow good herb in north America.

But I love the modern strains available and they tend to give me energy if I want it and relaxation if I choose to chill.

Maui Wowee I got the last bag the dealer had and it was just the shake and I paid $50 for an ounce and it was better than the Colombian Red Bud buds that were $25 an oz,,Mexican was $10>$15 for a four finger bag,,Mexican dealers couldn’t afford scales.

(Getting self together) It is a good thing that I was medicating prior to reading that. The mental imagery is decidedly emetic in nature. Cheaper than ipecac. I’d have been ralphing on my keyboard if I hadn’t been toking beforehand.

Shame on you! You know our readership here is across almost every demographic, including age. The youth must be protected against such vile pornography lest it warp their young, impressionable minds! Think of the children! (/snark)

OK, who wants to be the wholesale supplier to an allegedly retired DEA agent? Please report to New Zealand for an IQ test.

DEA agent goes to pot, leaves fed agency to join marijuana industry
I can just see this guy on opening day, sitting behind the counter and wondering why half of the people that come in go into fits of side splitting laughter and the other half cursing him for being a greedy tool of capitalism. “But I’m offering to sell at 20% off of the “street” value! Potheads really are stupid!”

darn your own socks! And that brick wall is looking might… crumbly. Lots of holes too. Hmmm… maybe it’s time for some film maker to make Holes II. Adding the prohibitch twist could make it a real laugh fest, think of the cast of characters – the ghost of Harry, Calvina, Pat “SAM” Kennedy, Droop Dogg… oooh, and what about Stoner Zombies? An apocalyptic tale of America’s Decline as the country declines into a stoned hell. Doctors and airline pilots high on herb… politicians in Congress laughing and getting along…

aaah, sun. We’ve been under a thick fog for the past cuppla weeks while the coast, the mountains and the desert side of the state have all had sunshine and +50º weather. So, for sunshine, no worries lass. Sol has been out since before 9 a.m. today, woohoo!

“CADCA is concerned that only a portion of what the President said during his interview has made headlines, when in fact the President expressed some serious concerns about marijuana legalization. [snip] We also echo the President’s sentiment that the case for marijuana legalization is ‘overstated’ and will not solve the many social problems our society faces.

I’m concerned that CADCA is willing to paraphrase and twist what the president said to fit their own talking points. The sentiment was that legalization is a panacea… wait, let me quote the exact text from the start of this open thread…:

“Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case.” [emphasis added]

And so, the CADCA has heard from Mr. Sabet and SAM I presume?

As the President noted, the case for marijuana legalization is overstated…

Whatever, keep pressing if you want. The toothpaste is out of the tube. Be Anti-drug all you want to be, just accept that you’ve been lied to for 80+ years by the same government that has been writing checks directly and indirectly to your organization.

Crut,,the other day I mentioned that the $1 million dollar day was rattling around in every legislators brain like a b-b in a box car,,,that b-b today is sounding more like a cannon ball,,,pretty soon it is going to get even bigger,,,about the first time a budget committee starts arguing over cutting more repairs on the highways or fixing school roofs and no revenue to do both and some legislator chimes in if we legalize pot we could do both and take a trip to the Himalayas to watch butterflies fuck

Back off now, and watch the real progressives, the foot-soldiers that will go to the wall for a good cause, hemorrhage from the Dem Party like blood from an arterial wound…and the analogy is more than apt.

Choomie might not care; he’s a lame duck. But the Dem Party knows about the demographic shift and what it means: no more machine politics. The latest crop of voters are issue voters, and they are not interested in ‘business as usual’. Backhand them again as he did during the Town Halls where the cannabis legalization question was Number One at least 4 times(!) and you’ll lose them forever.

The Greens could find their ranks swelling over just this issue alone, (and in the process become a force to be reckoned with) for the cannabis re-legalization question is in actuality a generation’s litmus test as to how serious the Dems are in wanting to keep power in the face of that demographic tsunami.

Fail it, and your party is doomed from eventual (and rapid!) attrition and loss of vital supporters (you think the Big Money Boyz bang on doors and hand out leaflets?) to suffer the ignominy of irrelevance.

I once saw a micro-camera video of an engine coming apart from excessive RPM, filmed from inside a drag race engine. One part, say, a valve, fails, and it interferes with other parts. Valve springs don’t react fast enough to get the valve head out of the way of the piston. The valve head breaks off, dropping into the combustion chamber, where it slams a hole in the piston, and sends fragments of valve, and piston down into the crankcase. the shrapnel destroys bearings, and blocks oil passages. Lack of oil pressure brings spinning metal parts into direct contact, with no protective film. Friction, heat, expansion, and galling occur. Within fractions of a second, the engine internals become externals and the entire show is over. BRAAAAAAAA!!!….Bang, rattle, rattle, rattle, silence.
I believe we’ve seen the valve head coming loose.

My lil’ sis drove around in what amounted to a rolling random-timer incendiary bomb for years. She was lucky. Others weren’t.

The fact is Ford knew they were unsafe but did nothing about it, figuring the number of lawsuits wold not be enough impetus to be forced to fix the problem. That it wouldn’t cut too deeply into the profit margin. What I call ‘moral calculus’.

One could extend the analogy to the DrugWarriors WRT the ‘collateral damage’ they cause in their pursuit of the chimerical. A lot of them know what they’re doing is in many cases illegal if not outright immoral. But they don’t care.

They don’t care how many innocent people they harass, accost, injure, maim and kill, so long as their ‘special status’ is maintained (you kill someone, you go to prison, while if they kill someone they get put on ‘administrative’ paid leave until it quiets down, and then the murderer gets promoted).

They don’t care long as they money keeps rolling in and their pensions are secure. So long as the propaganda mill keeps pumping out BS to frighten Grammaw and Grampaw into voting for pols who voted for taxpayer dollars to foot the bill for boondoggle ‘anti-drugs’ programs (like the ONDCP Billion dollar PR effort) to keep (always Black or Hispanic) drug dealers from crashing through G’maw and G’paw’s doors and windows and ramming blow up their nose or stabbing them with smack-filled syringes…or doing so to their Grandkids!

Thankfully, the Olde Order Passeth, and the easy marks are being replaced by the very generation the prohibs made so much about ‘saving’. They know who conned their parents, and they know who tried to con them, and why. And they’re voting to end the game.

The prohibs say we are a 300 MPH freight train heading for destruction. As usual, they’re guilty of the psychological pathology known as ‘projection’. The train belongs to them, it’s clearly marked with the word ‘GRAVY” in big block letters on the engine, and it is what’s hurtling towards it’s’ destruction, a brick wall called The DARE Generation.

Who, I repeat, now have the responsibility for paying the bills, now that the old folks are shuffling off the stage, and now they will have a say in how those tax dollars are spent. Like in dismantling the DrugWar by first re-legalizing cannabis.

The price of moral calculus, in this case, such as lying to kids about drugs for personal gain, is that the eventual moral censure can take many forms. Like those grown-up kids cutting police budgets. “What comes around, goes around.”

Actually, maybe a lot of democrat voters will flock to the green party, but as that party is as statist as both the democrats and republicans, I think a LOT of the ones who only voted democrat because of the marijuana issue will be flocking to the libertarians instead. We could be seeing races with only greens and libertarians as candidates, soon. If that happens, I expect the libertarians to win more often, most people do NOT like to be regulated, restricted, or controlled by any party or government.

Between Obama bringing young voters to the polls and Robert changing senior’s mind’s with the Silver Tour me thinks the wall doth shake,,there are old scared Republicans having chills running up and down their spines right now too,,for exactly the opposite reason we do,,we FEEL freedom coming and they feel loss of control..
Karma

I agree with most of what you wrote, clay, but republicans haven’t had much power since before Bush was out of office, and I think the democrats are feeling that chill of fear even more than republicans because they HAVE had the power for the last 7 years or so and they see it slipping away. The libertarians, otoh, are rubbing their hands together with glee.

and in election land… which party has the largest bloc of voters? What? Did someone say independents?

Obama didn’t mean what he said? Wait a min… is that because he’s black or a former pot head? ’cause it just seems to me the Prez doesn’t say what he doesn’t mean when he sits down for a long, serious interview with a major publication.

I want to hear him say he didn’t mean what he said.

Which brings up the point (again) of bodily contortion. Heads up their butts. Good to go on that one. Feetses in mouths. Can’t argue with that. But to have not just heads up asses and both feet in mouths but to also manage to totally paint themselves into a corner? Wow. That’s blind devotion.

I mean the writer makes a point of telling us how cautious the Choomster is w/ his words:

Obama leaned back and let a moment go by. That’s one of his moves. When he is interviewed, particularly for print, he has the habit of slowing himself down, and the result is a spool of cautious lucidity. He speaks in paragraphs and with moments of revision. Sometimes he will stop in the middle of a sentence and say, “Scratch that,” or, “I think the grammar was all screwed up in that sentence, so let me start again.”

The President spoke some cautious truth. He is feeling increasing pressure from the black community on the issue – Tavis Smiley continues berating Obama for his lack of attention to poverty, prison and education. The NAACP continues creeping into agreement with us. Michelle Alexander laid the boom with The new Jim Crow. His own AG called the racial disparity in sentencing and imprisonment a massive failure.

And as I hate to point out but almost always do, the drug war has given the US a racial disparity in imprisonment many times greater than that of South Africa at the peak of Apartheid.

The heat is on and it won’t lighten up. Our hammer blows continue. Hard hats on folks. Fire up that trebuchet I hear rumor of. Oh, and roll a few fatties for us old traditionalist pufferers.

Speaking of old farts… I just flashed on the 60s and 70s band concerts of the next 20 years or so and the thought of vaporizer balloons drifting around I thought a tad funny.

Somebody above mentioned a twisted rope hash… 1971, Alice Cooper’s Killer tour, Denver, CO (my first ever big stadium show). I watched a lit, full twist of that hash get passed seat to seat, row by row by row… billowing that dank smoke and that great smell of burning quality hashish from the old country – I swear it got half the auditorium high. (If ganja were mostly mediocre it may not have traveled as well or as far as it did in it’s ancient global seed migrations, riding along in the bags of of our most ancient ancestors).

That’s what impressed me too, Allan. Well thought out words. This was no impulsive answer. I think I read it more carefully after I read that. That’s why I said his (Obama’s) legacy will not be the legalizing of marijuana, but the dismantling of a racist and unjust policy. Otherwise, its just another bad habit to him (as he chewed on his nicorette gum).

Could that be a bit of the man Barack peeping from under all the wraps he’s kept in as Prez? Could that be why he selected his words? Perhaps he knew he was going to piss somebody/ies off but did so carefully.

Whatever. He said it. Right there in b&w. Repeating not much more than what he said in that debate at NWU (2006?).

Between Harry Reid and Christy, I have to think the word is out that opposing marijuana is not a good policy (now that they are beginning to think about elections). The dyed-in-the-wool prohibitches have grown or are in the process of growing another face. I predict some showdowns and lots of excitement. Its just beginning. They are starting to pick sides. I can’t see that the prohibitches have any legs to stand on but Volkows, and I am not so sure she can support all that weight. Not after watching what Nick Gillespie did in his debate with Patrick Kennedy http://tinyurl.com/kpcx6wd

This quasi-myth of today’s marijuana is not yesterday’s BS needs to be squashed. Patrick is over-using it, and not really getting called out on it.

It’s like saying we can’t legalize alcohol, because today’s bourbon is stronger than yesterday’s beer. You can’t compare the two. Hey Patrick, you do realize that there are more than just one variety of cannabis right? Given the choice, people aren’t going to grab the top shelf stuff every time.

With prohibition in place, I don’t have a CHOICE of what my hookup has available. If Super Uber Dankified Skunk X is all that’s available, I’m kinda bummed, cause I’ll turn into a theoretical zombie after one hit. I’d prefer something like Headband which get’s me out of the house to do some amazing yardwork.

One thing I believe will be different than it ever has been. I don’t think ANY politician is going to get away with not taking a stand and saying whether they are for or against marijuana legalization in any of the up and coming elections. This is where the rubber meets the road. There are a lot of scared political hopefuls, and rightfully so. Its fessin’ up time.

The first few seated legislators,federal or state, that oppose marijuana legalization and lose support for it will cause an epidemic of politicians remembering their college days and how much INNOCENT fun they had and how they didn’t really think of it as breaking the law,,but they quit because it didn’t let them study enough,,

Grassley will say he did it and couldn’t remember his name,,wish I couldn’t.
Everyone still thinks we are fighting the standard list if industrial giants and drug war profiteers and fail to consider that without banks there would be international drug cartels just like with no banks there would be no car industry either. You don’t move 400 billion around the world in back packs.

For decades, it has been rumored the United States government was secretly sponsoring the smuggling of cocaine into the country. Federal officials have long denied such speculation, pointing out the billions of dollars spent intercepting drugs. Newly released documents, and testimony from Justice Department and DEA officials now show the stories of government running cocaine are true.

If I was rich enough to ban coffee and set up a multi-layered enforcement agency to make sure nobody but my agents were allowed to grow and distribute the coffee I think I could get rich,,richer. Especially if I could sell the population on the idea coffee was bad for children,,they would gladly pay taxes to fund your enforcement agencies.
And adults would still buy coffee and go out in a storage shed to drink it and before long kids would want to.

This petition will be delivered to: President Barack ObamaIf marijuana is safer than alcohol, remove it from the DEA’s schedule of drugs

Dear No,

In a profile published this week by The New Yorker magazine, President Barack Obama acknowledged the fact that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol for the consumer. Yet federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, a category the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers “the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules.” It’s time for that to change.

The Controlled Substances Act gives the executive branch, led by President Obama, the legal authority to remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedule of drugs. That authority should be exercised immediately.

Please sign our Change.org petition calling on President Obama to remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedule of drugs. Then share it widely with your friends and relatives, and encourage them to sign and share it, too.

The president clearly recognizes that marijuana is safer than alcohol — which is not a scheduled drug — so he should do everything he can to ensure our federal laws reflect that fact. Actions speak louder than words, and it’s time for the president to take action.

Sign our petition now and tell President Obama to remove marijuana from the DEA’s schedule of drugs. Marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol, and it is time for our government to start treating it that way.

➜Teddy Kennedy and The Ultimate Tragedy of Liberalism.
His Brain Tumor Is of the Type That Cannabis Might Cure.
Suppressed Research May Claim Another Drug War Victim.
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2008-05-20 16:20:00

As it happens, there have been several studies showing that glioma cells can be killed by cannabinoids.Incredi bly, at least one of these studies was suppressed by the US government

Had the medical potential of cannabis not been suppressed to satisfy the needs of the Drug War’s prohibitionist propaganda, scientists might have developed ways of using cannabinoids to treat this type of cancer that would be far more effective than the treatment that he is going to have to endure.

➜Patrick J. Kennedy
On January 28, 2008, Kennedy joined his father in endorsing Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, stating that Obama was the “perfect antidote to George Bush”

Drug and alcohol use
Kennedy has acknowledged being treated for cocaine use during his teenage years, and admitted that he abused drugs and alcohol while he was a student at Providence College. He sought treatment for an OxyContin addiction in 2006.

Rape accusation against William Kennedy Smith
During Easter weekend in 1991, Kennedy and his father were in Palm Beach, Florida, along with Patrick’s cousin, William Kennedy Smith. At Au Bar, Patrick met a 27-year-old Testas Restaurant waitress, Michelle Cassone, and Smith met another woman, Patricia Bowman. Both women returned with the Kennedys to the family’s beachfront retreat, where a series of events took place that resulted in Smith being charged with raping Bowman. The prosecution alleged that the three Kennedys collaborated to cover up this alleged crime. In a widely covered trial, Smith was acquitted.

➜Peter Lawford Was His Dad,
Pat Kennedy His Mom, and Heroin His Undoing
Now Christopher Lawford Is Back on Track

Lawford saw little of his famous dad after the breakup. “I had a lot of resentment that I didn’t have a father growing up.” he says. When the two did spend time together, “we were more friends than father-son. I loved my father, but it was weird. He went out with women who were my age. Then I had my own insanity which prevented me from being there for him later on.”

In time, his reliance on drugs, stemming from experimentation in prep school, grew greater (“I just used whatever worked”), although he managed to graduate from Tufts University in 1977. He enrolled at Fordham Law School in New York City but by then had developed a heroin habit that in part forced him to drop out after only a few months. A year later David Kennedy, 28, the cousin to whom Lawford was closest, died of a drug overdose in a Palm Beach, Fla.. hotel room. “David and I were just best buddies.” he says,

With his mind clear for the first time in nearly two decades, Lawford decided to follow his father and try acting.

➜Heroin reaches pain faster…Outlaw It!

➜The Heroin Challenge

➜Stepping Off Hard Drugs With Cannabis
Keeping off, stepping on and stepping off
Cannabis use is viewed as a normal part of daily life and as something completely different from the use of substances like cocaine, speed and heroin. Through the commercialized coffee shop system, these cannabis users are given a place in society that is isolated from a hard-drug environment. “Everything to do with the sale and use of hard drugs is forbidden” is the most fundamental house rule.

“Stepping off” from hard- or poly-drug use back to using cannabis exclusively is a pattern largely obscured by the steppingstone theory. Conventionally, as a result of the dominant prevailing ideology among drug researchers and treatment practitioners, the steppingstone theory is invoked to explain the pathways to addiction. But, as has been emphasized in the literature on natural recovery, there are pathways out of hard-drug addict6ion that do not involve institutionalized treatment programs (Granfield & Cloud, 1994; Biernacki, 1986; Winick, 1963). We encountered former hard-drug users who consume marijuana and hashish in the context of the “harddrug free” environment of the coffee shop. For these harddrug users, cannabis served as a means of breaking the cycle of hard-drug use and addiction. Cannabis use was not only a prologue to hard drugs, but also an epilogue. It was a means of stepping off.

➜Fighting Drug Addiction With Marijuana — Fusion.
For decades, Colombia has been searching for ways to treat people who are addicted to basuco, the nation’s version of crack cocaine.

➜New Study: Marijuana May Treat Addiction To Hard Drugs
@theweedblog October 2, 2013
According to a new study published last week by the National Institute of Health, cannabis may be an effective treatment in curing people of addiction from hard drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines.

In my best Ben Stein voice, “Wow”. The article linked below is certainly some strong supporting evidence for asserting that there’s an epidemic, no make that a pandemic of people that subscribe to the Humpty Dumpty school of sophistry redefining the word “disease” to suit their whimsy and that the process is progressing smoothly. This one is from the “if you can’t lick ’em with logic, then baffle ’em with bullshit” category:

Facebook’s growth will eventually come to a quick end, much like an infectious disease that spreads rapidly and suddenly dies, say Princeton researchers who are using diseases to model the life cycles of social media.

Disease models can be used to understand the mass adoption and subsequent flight from online social networks, researchers at Princeton’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering say in a study released Jan. 17. The study has not been peer-reviewed. Updating traditional models on disease spread to assume that “recovery” requires contact with a nondiseased member — i.e., a nonuser of Facebook (“recovered” member of the population) — researchers predicted that Facebook would see a rapid decline, causing the site to lose 80% of its peak user base between 2015 and 2017.
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That is not such a tough call; the time frame is long enough that there is a very good chance that something else will supersede FB, and the public is fickle. Unless FB can refresh itself and sell itself anew to the next gens, it will die.